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David Acosta, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Association of American Medical Colleges

Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, President and Dean, Morehouse School of Medicine

The VA Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA) will host VA's inaugural Diversity Summit on June 28-29, 2017 at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. The summit's theme is "Building the Workforce Pipeline of Tomorrow" and it will commence at the conclusion of the Empower2 Conference; a national meeting for those historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that have health professions education programs. VA anticipates the summit will have between 75-100 participants from a variety of backgrounds.

The summit's purpose is to strengthen VA's valued relationships with the HBCU community. HBCU attendees will have a venue to explain the obstacles experienced by their schools while working with VA. VA will provide summit participants with additional partnership opportunities. This meeting will further provide OAA with the opportunity to identify the best approaches to ensuring appropriate and consistent outreach to all HBCU health professions schools. VA intends to listen and prioritize solutions to the concerns identified at the summit. OAA is currently in the process of finalizing the summit agenda and its speakers. Some of the agenda topics include:

Summit Participants will include representatives from each of the HBCU medical schools, officials from the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, members of the Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee of the National Academic Affiliations Council, and Veterans Health Administration leadership at the local, regional and national levels. Keynote speakers were identified for their expertise in developing health professions workforce diversity. Planned discussions at the summit include exploring opportunities for educational collaboration, expansion of GME in rural and underserved areas, improving diversity in the healthcare workforce, and encouraging leadership at VAMCs and HBCUs to purposefully work together. During the Summit, there will be time set aside for open dialogue to discuss the VA partnership successes and challenges experienced by attending schools. Best practices will be identified and shared among summit participants to enhance the relationship between HBCUs and VA.